Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Perfunctory Explanation to Follow

In a Lisbon suburb, Bela Vista, Setúbal, police shoot someone who later died of his injuries, and Portugal gets to join Europe in earnest. Immigrants and minorities in suburban ghettos explode in anger, and another tired class warfare argument is rolled out as quickly as Pavlov’s dog can drool.

Suburbs and suburbanites just combust. Didn’t you know? Doesn’t that happen everywhere?

Of course we all know the place exuded with culture, so let’s move on, shall we? A simple ‘Imigrantes vs Polícia’ Kabuki of pitiable explanations doesn’t explain everything, bu that doesn’t mean that, as was the case in Greece earlier this year, that political parties won’t try to exploit the sad situation. The ‘innocent youth’ shot by police, over which this rioting started, had a record as long as his arm.